Hundreds of recruiters and security professionals from the national security sector gathered for a day of learning and networking on October 5 – with the keynote, morning sessions, and afternoon breakouts all standing room only. In the afternoon, experts from the cleared recruiting industry offered key insights.
Addressing Problems and Implementing Solutions in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility
The cleared recruitment breakout for the afternoon of Connect started with a panel on Addressing Problems and Implementing Solutions in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility within our industry – which are certainly hot topics for recruiting teams in both government and contractors.
Sina Beaghley, senior defense policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and Nicole Gibson from Guidehouse (in the national security segment) joined together to lead this discussion. Beaghley’s research focuses on national security policy including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cyber, personnel and security clearance vetting. And all recruiters know just how important the security clearance process is as a major factor in helping the next generation of national security talent become a part of the candidate pool. And Gibson is well versed in strategic planning and business process improvement but is also a part of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) committee for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Gibson discussed why the justice piece is so important to DEI in holding people accountable and ensuring that hiring processes or conditions are morally correct or fair. And Beaghley talked about her research exploring the potential for racial disparities in the clearance process, what prompted that research and what further research RAND hopes to release in the next few months.
This panel also discussed what problems the cleared industry is facing when it comes to reaching diverse candidates, whether the issue of attracting diverse candidates affects government and industry equally, what benchmarks are important for building a diverse workforce, what stakeholders recruiters should take into consideration throughout the entire process.
Survival Tips for Today’s Cleared Recruiter
Gerry Bohannon, director of talent acquisition at GDIT has a long history in recruiting in this industry. Bohannon was joined by Caroline McConnell, the SVP & Chief Human Capital Officer at Altamira Technologies Corporation. McConnell has some industry insights into the topics of hybrid/telework, clearances, and COVID policies as a director in this arena.
So, what has helped their recruitment teams be successful in the government contracting world? Bohannon noted that there are no magic tricks. You have to find what works for your teams and be persistent on those tactics. McConnell said that her teams have actually seen success in ensuring their recruiters don’t get burnt out and actually get to take a vacation. At Altamira, it is commonplace for recruiters to switch requisitions when they continually hit walls and get a change of scenery in the recruitment environment.
The panel also discussed the elephant in the room: The Great Resignation. With contractors competing with the commercial sector’s offerings of higher salaries and remote work option, you can’t skip talking about this when you work in national security. The panel discussed tips on how we can promote the mission of supporting cleared work and making those roles attractive to the average civilian. Similarly, we noted the number of openings compared to the talent available, especially in the cybersecurity field, and what tactics recruiters implement to get young professionals interested in cleared cybersecurity roles.
Other hot topics as we closed out the jam-packed day included, clearance timelines relating to recruitment, and how recruiters can work with security teams to staff billets with potentially clearable personnel, and how talent acquisition leaders can better leverage partnerships to feed their talent pipelines (i.e., nonprofits, universities, skillbridge programs, bootcamps, the Military Spouse Employment Partnership).
ClearanceJobs has created a venue to bring these niche recruiters together, give them a place to voice their challenges, but also allow professionals take away something to implement on their teams moving forward.
